Sunday, December 21, 2008

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Classroom in a Book or Digital Nature Photography

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Classroom in a Book

Author: Adobe Creative Team

This thorough guide to Adobe Illustrator CS3 is ideal for beginning users who want to master the key features of Adobe's powerful vector drawing software. Using clear, step-by-step lessons, each chapter contains a project that builds upon the reader's growing knowledge of the software, while review questions at the end of each chapter reinforce key concepts and skills. Adobe Illustrator CS3 is jam-packed with new features and enhancements, including Live Color, a new environment that enables users to explore, apply, and save custom color configurations; improved integration with Adobe Flash CS3, which ensures that your vector illustrations import effortlessly to Flash with their anchor point positions, layers, and paths intact; a new Eraser tool, which lets users quickly modify objects or create entirely new shapes; a new Crop Area tool, which lets users set up a workspace so that it's automatically primed for the type of media that will display their design, whether it's print, Web, video, or film; new document profiles, newly improved drawing tools and controls, and much more. Whether you're brand-new to Adobe Illustrator or are looking for a project-based tutorial to familiarize yourself with Illustrator CS3's new features, this book provides you with the key techniques and tips you need to get the most out of this software.

Digital Nature Photography

Author: Jonathan Cox

Digital photography is one of the late 20th century's most innovative technologies. In 2000, digital cameras outsold traditional film format cameras 4:1. As the quality of digital images increases and the price decreases—and as more highly regarded photographers work almost exclusively in digital—this trend can only continue.

Digital Nature Photography is the definitive how-to book on photographing nature with a digital camera. Focusing primarily on the art of taking the picture in the field—rather than just manipulating the image after it has been shot—this comprehensive guide is geared to the nature photographer who is fairly new to the world of digital cameras. Packed with step-by-step directions and resplendent full-color examples from the author's own body of work, readers will receive hands-on practice with lighting, composition, landscapes, sunrises, sunsets, animal portraits, close-ups, manipulating and storing images, and much more. The essential reference for every level of photographer, Digital Nature Photography guides the reader through a magnificent and unique visual experience into the natural world.

Combines two of the hottest areas in photography into one comprehensive guide

Author is known as an early pioneer in digital field photography, with an incredible body of work

Filled with 200 dazzling examples from the author's own work

Digital photography is becoming more and more popular among nature photographers

Jonathan Cox, who has a degree in entomology and plant pathology, is a renowned photographer, stock shooter, and naturalist who specializes in wildlife, nature, and adventure photography. He teaches nature/wildlife photography for the University of Delaware and runs a digital photography business. He is also widely published in all the major photography magazines, appearing most frequently as a staff writer and adventure photographer for Digital Camera. He lives in Unionville, PA.

In a sea of techie digital photography books this one stands out for what it is not. It's not full of digital jargon. In fact this book is more an introduction to photography than anything else. It just so happens that Cox equipment of choice is digital; and as an introduction to photography Cox does an excellent job. His writing style is conversational and approachable. The images are stunning. The approach will set the new photographer at ease as he progresses through the basics, into composition, and finally into manipulating your images in the computer. This step also is in refreshingly plain English.

Digital can be a wonderful learning tool because of its instant feedback. If you know an aspiring photographer buy them this book. By the time they're finished they may be teaching you a thing or two.

Digital Camera Magazine

Learn the secrets of Digital's Camera Magazine's very own Adventure Photographer, Jon Cox. This beautifully illustrated paperbound book will inspire and educate outdoor digital photographers at any level of experience.

NaturePhotographers.net

For those who spend any time at all in the NPN image critique galleries, they will recognize that digital capture has taken the nature photography community by storm. In just a few short years, digital capture has gone from a curiosity to an accepted method of photography.

As with any new technology, the equipment and processes associated with digital capture are significantly different in many aspects as compared to film media. Even for experienced photographers, the move to digital capture brings with it a significant learning curve.

Digital Nature Photography by Jon Cox is a comprehensive guide to the use of digital capture for nature photography, with chapters on equipment selection, field technique and digital manipulation. The book also covers subjects such as basic photo techniques, composition, and light and color, making it an ideal resource for those taking their first steps into the world of nature photography with digital camera in hand.

Vividlight - Jonathan Cox

In a sea of techie digital photography books this one stands out for what it is not. It's not full of digital jargon. In fact this book is more an introduction to photography than anything else. It just so happens that Cox equipment of choice is digital; and as an introduction to photography Cox does an excellent job. His writing style is conversational and approachable. The images are stunning. The approach will set the new photographer at ease as he progresses through the basics, into composition, and finally into manipulating your images in the computer. This step also is in refreshingly plain English.

Digital can be a wonderful learning tool because of its instant feedback. If you know an aspiring photographer buy them this book. By the time they're finished they may be teaching you a thing or two.

Shutterbug Magazine

Amphoto wisely chose Jon Cox to write this book and while it's a big subject to cover in 160 pages, he does a great job combining practical tips with wonderful photographs to provide an introduction to digital nature photography. Instead of trying to convince us he's the next Stephen King, there are lots of large photographs with text emphasizing how they were made. His respect for the readers includes caption notations if images were made in captivity, but that didn't change the cuteness of his photograph of a wolf licking a friend's face. You'll agree that Cox's photographs are amazing, especially when you see the image of a bull elk made in Yellowstone with a Nikon 995 point-and-shoot. This is a wonderfully useful book on creating nature photographs for the nature lover in all of us.

Library Journal

In this beautifully illustrated book, Cox addresses both landscape and wildlife photography. He first deals with equipment and basic techniques, then devotes separate chapters to light and color, composition, landscapes, sunrise and sunset, animal portraits, close-ups, action photography, and manipulation, followed by a useful glossary, listing of resources, and index. Although this is not a step-by-step guide, Cox does clearly explain how he as a highly skilled photographer goes about making superb photographs. The stunning samples provide some of the very best evidence of how digital images can match and often surpass traditional methods. The result is well worth the price, if only for the breathtaking photography. Libraries would be well served by both this and Clements's book (above), but Clements offers more practical guidance for amateur shooters, while Cox will inspire more experienced photographers to strive for exquisite images. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.